H2 supply shortage bolstered by Air Liquide Anaheim, new H2 station at LAX on the way

The irony that the site of this year’s H2 Fuel Cell North America conference was in Anaheim, Calif can’t be stressed. A blessing in disguise for FCV lessees in the area.

It looks like Solar Power International already booked the Anaheim Convention Center for the 2018 Energy Storage International Conference so how ironic that a sub-conference, the Hydrogen Fuel Cell North America Conference, was also going on at the same time in SoCal, arguably the epicenter of this H2 Supply shortage. Notably absent from the list of vendors and presenters were reps from Air Products. Despite that, it looks like Air Liquide, the Hydrogen supplier playing host to delegates, being on top of their game might’ve been a much-needed windfall for SoCal FCV lessees.

Southern Current’s VP of Strategy and Development, @bret_sowers will be speaking today on the Trends in Regional Solar Markets. This will be held in Anaheim, CA at largest gathering of solar, smart energy, and hydrogen fuel cell professionals in North America. #SPIconpic.twitter.com/hPLe1GkrOB

For four days, from Sept. 24-27, Hydrogen fuel representatives from various companies and governing bodies attended the conference. You’d expect there to be chatter on social media about the current H2 Supply shortage but nary a peep from what I’ve seen. And for good reason, really. Air Liquide, the title sponsor for the H2 station bus trips to and from their own H2 station in Anaheim, was on top of their game, making sure their own station was operating at its peak performance as illustrated by their station graph.

As you can see, Air Liquide never let their station run dry on their watch and topped off sometime in the middle of the day to make sure there was always enough supply available.

Speaking of the current H2 supply situation, no news is neither good nor bad news, and so far, I haven’t heard any updates from Honda, Toyota, or Air Products on the status of their repairs to get their main and backup H2 plants up and running. So far, it looks like FCV Lessees are coping, getting H2 where they can.

As of this writing, there are still a handful of stations that run empty including Long Beach, Riverside, South Pasadena, and UC Irvine.

Shortly after the H2 conference in Anaheim wrapped up either a vandal stole the sole H2 nozzle on that station or someone drove off with it as their current station status says that, nozzle missing. So, that stations down. Curious to see how much an H2 Nozzle is, I contacted WEH one of many hydrogen infrastructure suppliers, this one in Germany, to find out just how much a replacement would run. I haven’t heard anything back, yet. Bookmark this page and I’ll update you on how much one runs.

Some good news did come from following social media connected to the conference, it looks like a new H2 Station is opening up at LAX (Los Angeles International Air Port) run by Air Liquide.

Perhaps Air Liquide is seriously stepping up their investments providing H2 in the Southern California region. If there’s one thing the SoCal area needs for its FCV lessees, it’s some competition between station suppliers.